The Cliffs of Connemara
by mypiratecat1
Summary: PostAWE.  COMPLETE one shot story in one chapter. An offshoot of my long fics Thicker Than Water and Calypso's Hand.  William and Elizabeth Turner and their son, Will, help Jack to face a sad part of his terrible childhood... his mother's death.


_**Disclaimer:**__ Nope, I looked... they still belong to Disney. _

_**Author's note: **__This is yet another offshoot of my long fics, "Thicker Than Water" and "Calypso's Hand". Jack and Will find out that they are cousins in "Thicker Than Water", which takes place after "Calypso's Hand". Not necessary to read those... but I would be delighted if ye did! Pirate Cat_

"... We're lost, aren't we, Jack?" Elizabeth looked around them, wiping the perspiration from her forehead and looking at her companions. She, William, Jack, and the Turner's 10 year old son, Will, had been tramping around the countryside of County Galway for hours, and it was rather a warm day, especially for the climate of western Ireland.

"...I thought tha' I could remember th' countryside... it ain't tha' big of an area 'round here," Jack perched himself, glumly, on a stone fence and looked up and down the tiny country road in confusion. "... things 'ave changed..."

William sat down next to his friend, and said, "It has been years since you left here, Jack... things are bound to change... are you sure that you got the directions right from the pub owner back there where the road divided?"

"I'd had some ale, lad... ye know wha' ale does t' me...worse 'n' rum..." Jack frowned. They all fell into silence, Elizabeth and William staring at the captain, while little Will was balancing himself on the top of the stone fence, singing to himself, "...yo ho, yo ho..."

Little Will finally turned to look at his parents and their best friend. They were in Ireland, upon this, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of his father's service to the Flying Dutchman, and a celebration of William's complete release from same said duty. Jack's homeland was Ireland, and it was promised to him by William and Elizabeth that they would accompany him to his native land... a land that was famous for its disregard for the crown of England, and for its willingness to harbor fugitives. In discovering that they were related by blood, William also thought it good to bring his wife and son to this place that was also a part of his heritage... a heritage that he shared with the pirate captain slouched next to him.

The mission at hand was not altogether greeted with enthusiasm by Captain Jack Sparrow, whose memories of this place were not all happy ones. He was left alone by his mother's death at the age of six... his mother had died very young, as she had never recovered from her only son's premature birth aboard his father's ship, and they had lived in abject poverty with only occasional stipends sent by Captain Teague, Jack's estranged father. His mother, having been a beautiful young Irish gypsy lass, was a skilled lacemaker and seamstress, and had made some money to support her and her illigitimate son, but there was never enough. She was a gypsy... an unmarried mother... and her son was the offspring of a well known pirate. Things were not easy... then she died...

Little Will came over and sat himself down on Jack's other side, as they all passed around a jug of water that Elizabeth had brought along in a basket. She pulled out some slices of lime for all of them, to help quench their thirst and satisfy Jack's voracious cravings for the same. As they all puckered up their faces at each other, she said, "... we should just rest for while, here, and try to figure out where we are... let's go sit in the shade for a bit. This is really a lovely place..."

William looked closely at Jack... who was lost in thought as he looked around. As Elizabeth took Will and they sat down under a green, leafy tree, William looked at his friend and said, softly, in the Irish Gaelic that Jack had taught him to speak, "We're not lost, are we?...you know exactly where we are. I have seen you looking at your compass."

Jack turned sad eyes to William and replied, "... see that stone fireplace chimney over there, cousin?" Jack pointed, and William nodded. Jack heaved a very deep sigh, and said, "... that was our cottage... tha's where I was taken from when they came t' take me mother's body away... they burned it t' th' ground as they hauled me away..." William turned his eyes back to Jack, who was staring at the stone chimney, memories flooding back into his eyes... painful, horrible memories of being sold into slavery as an orphan with no legal guardian... a half gypsy bastard child, with no one to take him in. William pulled a small flask of rum out of his shirt, and passed to Jack, who was swallowing hard and trying to fight back tears.

They rested for a while longer... Elizabeth kept her son busy, but they both could see that Jack was having a hard time... William was the only one that could talk to him when Jack was struggling in his mind... so she knew that it was best to let them be for a little while. She also suspected that they were not really lost at all... it was Jack's courage that was slipping... his courage to face down the demons of his childhood that bubbled to the surface every now and then, along with all of the other hallucinations that he had been fighting for years.

Finally, Jack and William stood up and turned to the pair, and William called out, "Come on, you two...Jack has remembered where we are, and we need to get going... " Elizabeth and little Will jumped up, and they resumed their journey along the lovely green countryside. Jack seemed to be a bit better, and entertained them with stories of this place, Connamara, and even jumping a little when he claimed that he saw a leprechaun. "...nasty dispositions they have, laddie, so t'would be a good idea t' watch fer 'em... they don't like bein' stepped on, an' they pack a pinch even meaner 'n' yer mother's, there..." Elizabeth playfully punched Jack on the arm, and they continued.

As they rounded a bend in the little road, Jack ceased his merry storytelling, and stopped dead in his wobbly tracks... ahead, in a glen, was what they had come to find... it was a small graveyard, somewhat overgrown, with many ancient stone crosses jutting out of the ground, as though they had grown there like grass. They all stood there in silence, and William and Elizabeth both took one of Jack's arms. They could actually feel his heart pounding as they stood next to him... it was if he was rooted into the ground, like the stone grave markers. Little Will came around his father, looked ahead, and then looked up at Cousin Jack... a man who had always treated him as an equal, and whom Little Will completely adored. It pained him to see the look on the captain's face, and he wrapped his arms around Jack's slender waist, and with his hand, he pulled on one of Jack's waist long dreadlocks that trailed down the captain's back, and stared up at him.

Jack looked down at the boy, and straight into his innocent eyes... Jack had never, ever remembered being that innocent. Little Will, in all of his child's wisdom, finally took Jack's hand and pulled him forward... this was something that had to be done...

They all walked into the graveyard in utter silence. They all knew that they would never find Madgalena Sparrow's grave, for she had been a pauper, and had died of fever. The victims of the fever epidemic had all been buried in a common grave, with no markers... Jack's mother was among them.

Elizabeth looked at Jack's dark face, and she finally thought of something. As they all stopped among the Celtic crosses, she said, "... the compass, Jack... to find that which you want the most..." He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "... leave it to William's bonny lass...I'm ashamed I didn't think of it, meself," he smiled, and he reached down and opened the compass... as he, William and Elizabeth all held it in their hands, the needle did not even spin once... the red arrow pointed directly ahead of them.

They went forward, slowly and reverently... little Will had gone on ahead, picking flowers and watching those who had loved him since before he was born.. unconditionally and without fail. He pondered what it would have been like without them... and his young mind could not begin to fathom what Jack had been through. As the trio approached, he kept walking onward, just ahead of them. He looked up, and gasped in wonder.

Before him, on the edge of the graveyard, was the sea... the sparkling, shining, craggy coast of Ireland... just below, in the protective bay, was the moored Black Pearl... their home. As he looked back to his family, they were utterly astonished to find that the compass pointed directly to the left of little Will... he had... they had.. found the final resting place of Magdalena Sparrow...

As they all looked up in awe, they drank in the surroundings... they were upon the edge of the graveyard and it's surrounding canopy of thick trees. This was an open glen, with myriads of Irish wildflowers in yellow and pink, blowing in the wind, like waves of the ocean. There were birds singing, and the far off cry of gulls. The wind was sweeping up the cliffs, and the salt air was all around them, filling their lungs and their hearts. Jack's glumness was suddenly lifted, and he looked up into the blue sky, and smiled.

Little Will looked up at them all, and grinned, "Isn't it beautiful? It's like she is next to the sea! Like she can see you, Cousin Jack!" Jack looked down at the boy and rumpled his brown hair, and said, "Well, if she couldn't be buried a' sea, this might be th' next best thing, eh, laddie?" His smile faded a bit, as the child knelt down and placed his wilting bouquet of wildflowers down upon the ground next to him... they had not even told the boy that this was the place... and yet he knew. Jack felt a lump forming in his throat again, and William instinctively handed him the flask of rum.

As the Turner family quietly walked off for a small distance to let their friend have some privacy, Elizabeth put her arm through her husband's, and William put his hand over hers. "It is lovely, isn't it?" she said. William nodded and replied, "Jack was expecting someplace dark and cold...much like his memories of his past... I think that he will feel a bit better about things... now." William paused, and said, with feeling, "... she would have been my aunt..."

And they watched as their friend remove his tricorn hat, and listened as he roughly and hesitantly sang a Gaelic folk song... an Irish lullaby... the only song that he could remember hearing from his mother's lips...and they heard him say, in his husky voice, "_Tá grá agam duit, Mama__..." _William and Elizabeth had both learned enough Gaelic to know what that meant... "I love you, Mama..."

Jack Sparrow stood there until the sun was hanging low in the sky... without urging, he placed his hat crookedly back upon his dark head, and they finally made their way back to the tiny road, lined with the stone fence. As they left the graveyard, they all turned to look one last time. The captain smiled at the lovely pink and orange rays of sun as they bounced off of the water and into the blue sky. With William and Elizabeth Turner's urging, Jack Sparrow finally was able to make some peace with his past...with their love and friendship, he was finally able to have the courage to sing a song of mourning... and find that there was beauty at his mother's grave...

...a burial place overlooking the wild sea that was in her son's pirate blood... high up on the windswept cliffs of Connemara...


End file.
